Compile-time options

configure determines the features of system and, in particular, the methods, which nginx can use for handling connections. Finally it creates the Makefile.

configure supports the following options:

--prefix=<path> - The path relative to which all other Nginx paths will resolve. If not specified, defaults to /usr/local/nginx.

--sbin-path=<path> - The path to the nginx executable. Only used for installation. If not specified defaults to <prefix>/sbin/nginx.

--conf-path=<path> - The default location of nginx.conf if no -c parameter is provided. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/conf/nginx.conf.

--pid-path=<path> - The path to nginx.pid, if not set via the "pid" directive in nginx.conf. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/logs/nginx.pid.

--lock-path=<path> - The path to the nginx.lock file. If not provided, defaults to <prefix>/logs/nginx.lock.

--error-log-path=<path> - The location of the error log if not set via the "error_log" in nginx.conf. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/logs/error.log.

--http-log-path=<path> - The location of the access log if not set via the "access_log" directive in nginx.conf. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/logs/access.log.

--user=<user> - The default user that nginx will run as if not set in nginx.conf via the "user" directive. If not set, defaults to "nobody".

--group=<group> - The default group that nginx will run under if not set via the "user" directive in nginx.conf. If not set defaults to "nobody".

--builddir=DIR - Set the build directory

--with-rtsig_module - Enable rtsig module

--with-select_module --without-select_module - Whether or not to enable the select module. This module is enabled by default if a more suitable method such as kqueue, epoll, rtsig or /dev/poll is not discovered by configure.

--with-poll_module --without-poll_module - Whether or not to enable the poll module. This module is enabled by default if a more suitable method such as kqueue, epoll, rtsig or /dev/poll is not discovered by configure.

--with-http_ssl_module - Enable ngx_http_ssl_module. Enables SSL support and the ability to handle HTTPS requests. Requires OpenSSL. On Debian, this is libssl-dev.

--with-http_realip_module - Enable ngx_http_realip_module

--with-http_addition_module - Enable ngx_http_addition_module

--with-http_sub_module - Enable ngx_http_sub_module

--with-http_dav_module - Enable ngx_http_dav_module

--with-http_flv_module - Enable ngx_http_flv_module

--with-http_stub_status_module - Enable the "server status" page

--without-http_charset_module - Disable ngx_http_charset_module

--without-http_gzip_module - Disable ngx_http_gzip_module. Requires zlib if enabled.

--without-http_ssi_module - Disable ngx_http_ssi_module

--without-http_userid_module - Disable ngx_http_userid_module

--without-http_access_module - Disable ngx_http_access_module

--without-http_auth_basic_module - Disable ngx_http_auth_basic_module

--without-http_autoindex_module - Disable ngx_http_autoindex_module

--without-http_geo_module - Disable ngx_http_geo_module

--without-http_map_module - Disable ngx_http_map_module

--without-http_referer_module - Disable ngx_http_referer_module

--without-http_rewrite_module - Disable ngx_http_rewrite_module. Requires PCRE if enabled.

--without-http_proxy_module - Disable ngx_http_proxy_module

--without-http_fastcgi_module - Disable ngx_http_fastcgi_module

--without-http_memcached_module - Disable ngx_http_memcached_module

--without-http_limit_zone_module - Disable ngx_http_limit_zone_module

--without-http_empty_gif_module - Disable ngx_http_empty_gif_module

--without-http_browser_module - Disable ngx_http_browser_module

--without-http_upstream_ip_hash_module - Disable ngx_http_upstream_ip_hash_module

--with-http_perl_module - Enable ngx_http_perl_module

--with-perl_modules_path=PATH - Set path to the perl modules

--with-perl=PATH - Set path to the perl binary

--http-client-body-temp-path=PATH - Set path to the http client request body temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/client_body_temp

--http-proxy-temp-path=PATH - Set path to the http proxy temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/proxy_temp

--http-fastcgi-temp-path=PATH - Set path to the http fastcgi temporary files. If not set, defaults to <prefix>/fastcgi_temp

--without-http - Disable HTTP server

--with-mail - Enable IMAP4/POP3/SMTP proxy module

--with-mail_ssl_module - Enable ngx_mail_ssl_module

--with-cc=PATH - Set path to C compiler

--with-cpp=PATH - Set path to C preprocessor

--with-cc-opt=OPTIONS - Additional parameters which will be added to the variable CFLAGS. With the use of the system library PCRE in FreeBSD, it is necessary to indicate --with-cc-opt="-I /usr/local/include". If we are using select() and it is necessary to increase the number of file descriptors, then this also can be assigned here: --with-cc-opt="-D FD_SETSIZE=2048".

--with-ld-opt=OPTIONS - Additional parameters passed to the linker. With the use of the system library PCRE in FreeBSD, it is necessary to indicate --with-ld-opt="-L /usr/local/lib".

--with-cpu-opt=CPU - Build for specified CPU, the valid values: pentium, pentiumpro, pentium3, pentium4, athlon, opteron, amd64, sparc32, sparc64, ppc64

--without-pcre - Disable PCRE library usage. Also disables HTTP rewrite module. PCRE is also required for regular expressions in "location" directive.

--with-pcre=DIR - Set path to PCRE library sources.

--with-pcre-opt=OPTIONS - Set additional options for PCRE building.

--with-md5=DIR - Set path to md5 library sources.

--with-md5-opt=OPTIONS - Set additional options for md5 building.

--with-md5-asm - Use md5 assembler sources.

--with-sha1=DIR - Set path to sha1 library sources.

--with-sha1-opt=OPTIONS - Set additional options for sha1 building.

--with-sha1-asm - Use sha1 assembler sources.

--with-zlib=DIR - Set path to zlib library sources.

--with-zlib-opt=OPTIONS - Set additional options for zlib building.

--with-zlib-asm=CPU - Use zlib assembler sources optimized for specified CPU, valid values are: pentium, pentiumpro

--with-openssl=DIR - Set path to OpenSSL library sources

--with-openssl-opt=OPTIONS - Set additional options for OpenSSL building

--with-debug - Enable debug logging

--add-module=PATH - Add in a third-party module found in directory PATH

Options may vary slightly between versions. Always check ./configure --help for the current list.

Example (this must all be on one line):

    ./configure \
        --sbin-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx \
        --conf-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx.conf \
        --pid-path=/usr/local/nginx/nginx.pid \
        --with-http_ssl_module \
        --with-pcre=../pcre-4.4 \
        --with-zlib=../zlib-1.1.3

Example on Ubuntu/debian with libgcrypt11-dev, libpcre3-dev and libssl-dev installed (choose EITHER --with-md5 OR --with-sha1, but not both; on debian and ubuntu, they should both point to /usr/lib)

     ./configure --with-openssl=/usr/lib/ssl/ --with-md5=/usr/lib

An Ubuntu Edgy .deb for version 0.5.2 can be found here: nginx_0.5.2-1_i386.deb.

(NOTE: According to an October 2006 message md5 was used in a now broken http cache module and sha1 is used in an incomplete mysql library module and so are currently not needed.)